Soviet Union

Muslim

In the late 1980s, Islam had the second largest number of
believers in the Soviet Union, with between 45 and 50 million
people identifying themselves as Muslims. But the Soviet Union had
only about 500 working Islamic mosques, a fraction of the mosques
in prerevolutionary Russia, and Soviet law forbade Islamic
religious activity outside working mosques and Islamic schools. All
working mosques, religious schools, and Islamic publications were
supervised by four "spiritual directorates" established by Soviet
authorities to provide governmental control. The Spiritual
Directorate for Central Asia and Kazakhstan, the Spiritual
Directorate for the European Soviet Union and Siberia, and the
Spiritual Directorate for the Northern Caucasus and Dagestan
oversaw the religious life of
Sunni (see Glossary) Muslims. The
Spiritual Directorate for Transcaucasia dealt with both Sunni and
Shia (see Glossary) Muslims. The overwhelming majority of the
Muslims were Sunnis; only about 10 percent, most of whom lived in
the Azerbaydzhan Republic, were Shias.

Islam originated in the Arabian Peninsula in 610 when Muhammad
(later known as the Prophet), a merchant in the Arabian town of
Mecca, began to preach the first in a series of revelations granted
him by God through the angel Gabriel. Muhammad's denunciation of
the polytheism of his fellow Meccans earned him the bitter enmity
of the leaders of Mecca, whose economy was based largely on the
thriving business generated by pilgrimages to the pagan Kaabah
shrine. In 622 Muhammad and a group of followers were invited to
the town of Yathrib, which came to be known as Medina (meaning the
city) because it was the center of Muhammad's activities. The move
to Medina, called the hijra (hegira), marks the beginning of Islam
as a force in history; it also marks the first year of the Muslim
calendar. Subsequently, the Prophet converted the people of the
Arabian Peninsula to Islam and consolidated both spiritual and
temporal leadership of all Arabia in his person.

After Muhammad's death in 632, his followers compiled those of
his words regarded as coming directly from God as the Quran, the
holy scripture of Islam; others of his sayings and teachings and
precedents of his personal behavior, recalled by those who had
known him during his lifetime, became the hadith. Together they
form the sunna, a comprehensive guide to the spiritual, ethical,
and social life of orthodox Muslims. Muhammad's followers spread
Islam to various parts of the world. Some oasis-dwelling people of
Central Asia were first converted to Islam in the seventh century.
The Tatars of the Golden Horde, who converted to Islam in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, spread Islam throughout
Central Asia
(see The Mongol Invasion
, ch. 1). Most of the Kirgiz
and Kazakh tribes of Central Asia, however, converted to Islam in
the nineteenth century while they were under Russian rule. In the
Caucasus region, Islam was introduced in the eighth century, but
not until the seventeenth century was it firmly established there.

Islam means submission (to God), and one who submits is a
Muslim. The shahada (testimony or creed) states the central
belief of Islam: "There is no god but God [Allah], and Muhammad is
his Prophet." Muhammad is considered the "seal of the prophets";
his revelation completes for all time the biblical revelations
received by Jews and Christians.

The duties of Muslims form the five pillars of the faith. They
are the recitation of the creed (shahada), daily prayer
(salat), almsgiving (zakat), fasting (sawm),
and pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. Believers pray while facing toward
Mecca in a prescribed manner each day at dawn, midday,
midafternoon, sunset, and nightfall. When possible, men pray in
congregation at a mosque under a prayer leader; on Fridays they are
obliged to do so. Women generally pray at home but may also attend
public worship at a mosque, where they are segregated from the men.
A special functionary, the muezzin, intones a call to prayer to the
entire community at the appropriate hour.

Since the early days of Islam, religious authorities have
imposed a tax (zakat) on personal property proportionate to
one's wealth; this is distributed, along with free-will gifts, to
the mosques and to the needy. The ninth month of the Muslim
calendar is Ramadan, a period of obligatory fasting (sawm)
during daylight hours for all but the sick, the weak, children, and
others for whom fasting would be an unusual burden. Finally, all
Muslims at least once in their lifetime should, if possible, make
the hajj, or pilgrimage, to the holy city of Mecca to participate
in special rites held there during the twelfth month of the
calendar.

Ideally every Muslim is expected to practice all five pillars
of the faith, but Islam accepts what is possible under the
circumstances. This acceptance is particularly significant for
Soviet Muslims, who can thus function both as Soviet citizens and
as members of an Islamic community. Soviet Muslims, however, have
had difficulty adhering to certain Islamic practices. For example,
fasting during the month of Ramadan was infrequently observed
because of the demands of meeting agricultural and factory work
quotas. In the late 1980s, permission to make the hajj was given
only to about twenty Soviet Muslims annually. A commonly observed
practice, however, was circumcision of young Muslim boys at around
the age os seven. Regardless of the degree of their adherence to
all Islamic precepts, most Soviet citizens born to Muslim parents
consider themselves Muslims.

A Muslim is in direct relationship with God; Islam has neither
intermediaries nor clergy. Those who lead prayers, preach sermons,
and interpret the law do so by virtue of their superior knowledge
and scholarship rather than by virtue of special powers or
prerogatives conferred by ordination.

The differences between Sunnis and Shias were originally
political. After Muhammad's death, the leaders of the Muslim
community chose Abu Bakr, the Prophet's father-in-law, as caliph
(from the Arabic word khalifa; literally, successor). Some
persons favored Ali, the Prophet's cousin and husband of his
favorite daughter, but Ali and his supporters (the Shiat Ali, or
Party of Ali) eventually recognized the community's choice. Ali
became the fourth caliph in 656. A great schism resulted, splitting
Islam between the Sunnis, who supported an elected caliph, and the
Shias, who supported Ali's line as well as a hereditary caliph who
served as spiritual and political leader. Over the centuries, the
Sunnis have come to be identified as the more orthodox of the two
branches.

The differences between the Sunni and Shia interpretations
rapidly took on theological and metaphysical overtones. The Sunnis
retained the doctrine of leadership by consensus, although Arabs
and members of the Quraysh, Muhammad's tribe, predominated in the
early years. Meanwhile, the Shia doctrine of rule by divine right
became more and more firmly established, and disagreements over
which of several pretenders had the truer claim to the mystical
power of Ali precipitated further schisms. Some Shia groups
developed doctrines of divine leadership far removed from the
strict monotheism of early Islam, including belief in hidden but
divinely chosen leaders and in spiritual powers that equaled or
surpassed those of the Prophet himself.

Muslims in the Soviet Union are a disparate and varied group.
Although most of them reside in Central Asia, they can be found on
the western borders of the Soviet Union as well as in Siberia and
near the border with China. Ethnically they include Turkic people
like the Azerbaydzhanis, Uzbeks, Tatars, and Uygurs; Iranian people
like the Tadzhiks, Ossetians, Kurds, and Baluchi; Caucasian people
like the Avars, Lezgins, and Tabasarans; and several other smaller
groups.

Soviet Muslims also differ linguistically and culturally from
each other. Among them, they speak about fifteen Turkic languages,
ten Iranian languages, and thirty Caucasian languages. Hence,
communication between different Muslim groups has been difficult.
Although in 1989 Russian often served as a lingua franca among some
educated Muslims, the number of Muslims fluent in Russian was low.
Culturally, some Muslim groups had highly developed urban
traditions, whereas others were recently nomadic. Some lived in
industrialized environments; others resided in isolated mountainous
regions. In sum, Muslims were not a homogeneous group with a common
national identity and heritage, although they shared the same
religion and the same country.

In the late 1980s, unofficial Muslim congregations, meeting in
tea houses and private homes with their own
mullahs (see Glossary),
greatly outnumbered those in the officially sanctioned mosques. The
mullahs in unofficial Islam were either self-taught or were
informally trained by other mullahs. In the late 1980s, unofficial
Islam appeared to split into fundamentalist congregations and
groups that emphasized
Sufism (see Glossary).